Project Fat Suit

Nineteen: A Day at the Park

I laughed at his cuteness and ruffled his hair. “Yeah, from all of that hockey, right?”

“See! You are Santa Clown! You knew that without me telling you and Santa knows everything,” Sam explained and gave me a look of astonishment. I didn’t want to tell him his brother had told me.

All of a sudden, Sam’s Christmas wish he had told to Liam came flooding back to me and I immediately was concerned for him. He didn’t appear to be sad or disappointed.

“How was your Christmas, Sam?” I asked him gently, wanting to know.

“It was awesome!” Sam enthused. “Even though the she-witch was there, it was so fun. Trent and Aunt Sue made me the best breakfast. The pancakes were shaped like Pokémon! And we made cookies and hot chocolate. And I got new DS games for Christmas from Trent!” He smiled excitedly.

I smiled back and told him to continue.

“And Holly gave me a shirt, but I don’t like it. It’s white, plain, and boring. Auntie Sue got me new shoes—they light up!” Sam continued with just as much excitement, but then he sort of got quieter. “But I didn’t get any presents from Santa this year. I didn’t get any coal either, so I think he’s just late.”

I looked at Sam in pity. Stupid Liam. Making promises he won’t keep. And then I felt bad because I had forgotten about gifts since my family has already celebrated the holidays. I rummaged my jacket pockets to see if I had anything laying around again.

Conveniently , I found a Jamba Juice gift card in one of the pockets. I really hope I haven’t used this.

“Here you go, Sam,” I tried to act cheerful and unsuspicious as I handed him the gift card, feeling ashamed of myself. Who gives a seven-year-old a gift card for Christmas? It’s just wrong.

“Thank you, Santa Clown!” Sam thanked me as if I have given him real Pokémon and told him he was a real trainer now.

“Yeah,” I said, feeling guilty for not getting him anything better.

This kid is so thankful for everything in his life. It was a nice change from other kids these days.

“Maybe Santa will give me my gift now since I have his favorite snack,” Sam wondered to himself with a deep-in-thought look in his face.

I decided that I’m going to punch Liam the next time I see him, because with my luck, I probably will. Not only for making promises he won’t keep, but for kissing my cheek. Asshole . . . wait, that’s Uranus. Liam can be Jerk-wad.

“Santa Clown, are you okay?” Sam asked concerned as he tugged on my shirt to get my attention. “You look really annoyed. Did I do something wrong?” he asked sweetly.

I snapped my attention back to Sam, who looked incredibly worried that he had done something wrong. “No, Sam,” I assured him. “It’s just this guy . . .”

I trailed off as I caught a familiar head of dark brown hair, half-covered by a Santa hat, walking nonchalantly on the sidewalk carrying some sort of book. Stupid coincidences.

I silently prayed that Liam would just keep walking without paying any attention to the park, but of course, things didn’t go my way.

“Liam!” Kurt cried happily as he stepped away from his sand mountain he was building and charged to Liam. “I missed you, buddy!” he shouted as if he was drunk.

Liam looked surprised for a moment as my brother came barreling towards him for a hug. I was surprised that Kurt knew Liam. Our school was pretty big.

“Kurt, how many Dr. Peppers have you had?” Liam asked condescendingly as he pulled away from Kurt’s bear, man-hug. He knew about Kurt’s Dr. Pepper problem too?